Author: Will Singleton
Date: 13:09:56 07/08/99
Go up one level in this thread
On July 08, 1999 at 13:51:36, Christophe Theron wrote: >On July 07, 1999 at 14:10:55, Ian Osgood wrote: > >>On July 07, 1999 at 02:02:18, Christophe Theron wrote: >> >>>On July 06, 1999 at 16:07:41, Ian Osgood wrote: >>> >>>>On July 06, 1999 at 15:31:06, Christophe Theron wrote: >>>> >>>>>On July 06, 1999 at 14:34:24, Ian Osgood wrote: >>>>> >>>>>>On July 05, 1999 at 15:12:55, Pierre Bourget wrote: >>>>>> >>>>... >>>>>>> >>>>>>>It would be interesting if someone can play a match of a dozen games between the >>>>>>>Cosmos and the Sapphire II to see once and for all who is the best portable >>>>>>>chess computer.Anyone willing to do that ? >>>>>>> >>>>>>>Pierre >>>>>> >>>>>>Great idea! >>>>>> >>>>>>This is easy to do for anyone who owns a Cosmos and has access to FICS (telnet >>>>>>freechess.org 5000). >>>>>> >>>>>>Login and play SapphireII, an auto-playing Novag Sapphire II. I try to keep it >>>>>>available 24 hours a day, although I have been having problems with my internet >>>>>>connection lately. >>>>> >>>>>Huh... How is it possible? You can't operate that manually, do you? And I >>>>>thought the Sapphire was a standalone computer. How is it possible to have it >>>>>connected to the Internet to play automatic games? Did you build a robot with an >>>>>arm to operate the small thing and a video camera to look at the small >>>>>display??? :) >>>> >>>>Many models of Novag computers came with a serial port, through which you can >>>>send commands and receive results (such as the computer's move and thinking >>>>analysis). I wrote a WinBoard engine which translated WinBoard engine commands >>>>into Novag serial commands, allowing my Sapphire II to play on the Internet or >>>>from WinBoard! It is also handy to run test suites against the SapphireII >>>>(similar to crafty's "test" command). The engine also translates chess server >>>>incremental time controls into appropriate thinking levels. >>>> >>>>SapphireII has played over 5000 automated games on FICS, maintaining a rating in >>>>the range 2000-2200. Many of the amateur chess authors here have appreciated >>>>having a program of some sophistication (albeit slow) to spar against. >>>> >>>>BTW, the serial port is non-standard, requiring an adapter (called the Novag >>>>Distributor) to translate signals to RS-232. Most people don't buy the adapter >>>>because it is an outrageous $70! This is also the method used to connect the >>>>SapphireII to the Novag Universal Chess Board (sold as the Sapphire II DeLuxe). >>>> >>>>Come over to FICS and try it for yourself, Christophe! >>>> >>>>Ian >>> >>> >>>Wow! Good work Ian! >>> >>>Unfortunately I will not have the time to challenge the SapphireII these days. >>>However, if I do it one day I will try to run Tiger on a computer of the same >>>class as the SapphireII processor. How fast is it? Is it 20MHz? In this case I >>>can play with my 386sx 20MHz notebook to equalize chances... >>> >>> >>> Christophe >> >>The Sapphire II runs at 32 MHz (divided down to 16 MHz). > >What do you mean by "divided down to 16 MHz" ??? > > > >> It has a 120K position >>opening book, and 128K RAM for hash tables (don't know how many positions that >>is). It reports between 3-5K nps over the course of a blitz game. Quite good >>for a portable, but no match for PC programs. > >I could give Tiger 128K hash table size on the 386sx 20MHz which is in fact a >very bad machine for my program. Tiger is a true 32 bits program, so each time I >get or send an integer to memory I need 2 memory cycles (the 386sx has a 16 bits >memory data bus !!!). The funny thing is that I hardly never need my integers to >be 32 bits long. Generally 16 bits integers (and even 8 bits integers) are >enough! > >I can do only 700 nodes per seconds on this computer. > >I could use my very small opening book (7500 moves). > > >>As a measure of its strength, here are some of its results against slower FICS >>computers: >> >>oldman (crafty 486) 1-1=1 >>ezcape (crafty P83) 2-2 >>PoorGnu (gnuchess P120) 9-4=7 >> >>SapphireII beats weakened computers, like TheComputer (CST level 1), Snafu, and >>Wronskian; and loses to computers which run faster than 100 MHz. With its tuned >>Kittinger program, SapphireII also has an edge against amateur programs such as >>PostModernist, Amateur, POWERHOUSE, JRCP, and HMChess. SapphireII is >>specifically weak against crafty with its excellent tactical extensions. > >Well... I'm almost sure that Tiger on my 386sx20 would have a bad time against >the Sapphire...! > > > Christophe I do appreciate having Sapphire to play against. Since it's a known quantity, I can test changes to Amateur easily by playing a few games, and noting the results. But I'd have to dispute your assertion that Sap has the edge against my program, or the others you mentioned. I think it averages out to about 3-1-1, usually. But, as I said, I use fics mainly for experimenting, so results aren't reliable. Will
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